Poems inspired by Morrissey / Smiths songs

InitiateMe

New Member
Hi! First time I've ever posted on here. I wanted to share a poem I wrote inspired by Late Night, Maudlin Street and would love to read creative writing other people have written in response to Morrissey / Smiths songs.

Some background to the poem (I hope I don't bore you!)
  • There is a street in Oxford where I live called 'Magdalen Street' which is pronounced exactly the same as 'Maudlin Street'
  • I am a student at Oxford Uni. 'Michaelmas' is the name we give to Winter term.
  • I tried to imagine the story behind what forced the narrator of Late Night, Maudlin Street to leave. I applied it to an experience of my own - being made to leave university because of an overdose I took. The 'dean' I mention is the member of staff at the university who deals with behaviour and welfare problems and he is the one who makes people leave uni if they are not safe enough.
  • I am a classics student. I was inspired by poem 1.3 in the Tristia by the Roman poet Ovid which is about the final night he spends in his home, saying goodbye to his wife, before he is exiled away from Rome by Caesar. The poem and the song seem unmistakably similar to me. Ovid was famously exiled because of a 'song and an error' - he wrote a scandalous sex how-to manual that shocked Caesar, that was the song, but no one really knows what the error was.
I would love to read any other fan poems / prose out there!! Thanks for reading!!


Late Night, Magdalen Street after Morrissey


Michaelmas coming

Push on

So long

Moves on.


The last night on Magdalen Street

Goodbye house

Goodbye stairs.

Dean demanded exile

Beyond Oxford’s furthest shores,

Are the provinces prepared?


Love at first sight

Was our petulant plight,

I can still see that cat

A shape that was golden and crimson

Extending a claw to your open palm.

And I can still see the gladioli

Peeping out of the pocket of your jacket

Where there should have been a cigarette packet.


While I was there,

The classics faculty’s ugliest boy

Became what you see before you:

The empire’s ugliest man.

Those strange pills

Were never meant to hurt you;

The fever and the chills,

They were meant to chill me.

“Many people

May say you are attention seeking

But many people

Can be wrong”.

And so you made it into a song.

I take up the shield too late,

Wounded.


Your song, my error.

Do you remember

When the toaster blew the lights out

So a torch guided us through the park

Trespassing through back gardens

Caught in clotheslines in the dark?

I’m so glad we chose this

Over Wetherspoon's happy hour.

I look at myself in the mirror and gag

But when I am with you in the shower

Oh, it’s not that bad.


Back to the rustic

To late nights on Watling Street.

What of late nights on Magdalen Street?

Three times I fingered the doorway,

(We never fixed that peeling yellow paint)

Three times you called me back

You said that you felt faint

But I thought that was just a little pantomime.

You wanted to come with me,

College gives me my orders

But loyalty sends you to the borders

So you say.


Tristia Tristia

Truly I do love you

Wherever you are

Whoever you are.
 
Last edited:
Hi! First time I've ever posted on here. I wanted to share a poem I wrote inspired by Late Night, Maudlin Street and would love to read creative writing other people have written in response to Morrissey / Smiths songs.

Some background to the poem (I hope I don't bore you!)
  • There is a street in Oxford where I live called 'Magdalen Street' which is pronounced exactly the same as 'Maudlin Street'
  • I am a student at Oxford Uni. 'Michaelmas' is the name we give to Winter term.
  • I tried to imagine the story behind what forced the narrator of Late Night, Maudlin Street to leave. I applied it to an experience of my own - being made to leave university because of an overdose I took. The 'dean' I mention is the member of staff at the university who deals with behaviour and welfare problems and he is the one who makes people leave uni if they are not safe enough.
  • I am a classics student. I was inspired by poem 1.3 in the Tristia by the Roman poet Ovid which is about the final night he spends in his home, saying goodbye to his wife, before he is exiled away from Rome by Caesar. The poem and the song seem unmistakably similar to me. Ovid was famously exiled because of a 'song and an error' - he wrote a scandalous sex how-to manual that shocked Caesar, that was the song, but no one really knows what the error was.
I would love to read any other fan poems / prose out there!! Thanks for reading!!


Late Night, Magdalen Street after Morrissey


Michaelmas coming

Push on

So long

Moves on.


The last night on Magdalen Street

Goodbye house

Goodbye stairs.

Dean demanded exile

Beyond Oxford’s furthest shores,

Are the provinces prepared?


Love at first sight

Was our petulant plight,

I can still see that cat

A shape that was golden and crimson

Extending a claw to your open palm.

And I can still see the gladioli

Peeping out of the pocket of your jacket

Where there should have been a cigarette packet.


While I was there,

The classics faculty’s ugliest boy

Became what you see before you:

The empire’s ugliest man.

Those strange pills

Were never meant to hurt you;

The fever and the chills,

They were meant to chill me.

“Many people

May say you are attention seeking

But many people

Can be wrong”.

And so you made it into a song.

I take up the shield too late,

Wounded.


Your song, my error.

Do you remember

When the toaster blew the lights out

So a torch guided us through the park

Trespassing through back gardens

Caught in clotheslines in the dark?

I’m so glad we chose this

Over Wetherspoon's happy hour.

I look at myself in the mirror and gag

But when I am with you in the shower

Oh, it’s not that bad.


Back to the rustic

To late nights on Watling Street.

What of late nights on Magdalen Street?

Three times I fingered the doorway,

(We never fixed that peeling yellow paint)

Three times you called me back

You said that you felt faint

But I thought that was just a little pantomime.

You wanted to come with me,

College gives me my orders

But loyalty sends you to the borders

So you say.


Tristia Tristia

Truly I do love you

Wherever you are

Whoever you are.

"Your song, my error.

Do you remember

When the toaster blew the lights out

So a torch guided us through the park

Trespassing through back gardens

Caught in clotheslines in the dark?

I’m so glad we chose this

Over Wetherspoon's happy hour.

I look at myself in the mirror and gag

But when I am with you in the shower

Oh, it’s not that bad."

This was my absolute favourite stanza of your poem! The whole piece is beautifully eloquent, but this evokes such a strong poetic precision sprinkled with nostalgia. The detail makes it feel very intimate and the humour is subtle, yet powerfully evocative. Beautiful! :)
 
"Your song, my error.

Do you remember

When the toaster blew the lights out

So a torch guided us through the park

Trespassing through back gardens

Caught in clotheslines in the dark?

I’m so glad we chose this

Over Wetherspoon's happy hour.

I look at myself in the mirror and gag

But when I am with you in the shower

Oh, it’s not that bad."

This was my absolute favourite stanza of your poem! The whole piece is beautifully eloquent, but this evokes such a strong poetic precision sprinkled with nostalgia. The detail makes it feel very intimate and the humour is subtle, yet powerfully evocative. Beautiful! :)


OMG thank you so so much Gaetano! You have made a 23 year old Morrissey fan very happy x
 
Hi! First time I've ever posted on here. I wanted to share a poem I wrote inspired by Late Night, Maudlin Street and would love to read creative writing other people have written in response to Morrissey / Smiths songs.

Some background to the poem (I hope I don't bore you!)
  • There is a street in Oxford where I live called 'Magdalen Street' which is pronounced exactly the same as 'Maudlin Street'
  • I am a student at Oxford Uni. 'Michaelmas' is the name we give to Winter term.
  • I tried to imagine the story behind what forced the narrator of Late Night, Maudlin Street to leave. I applied it to an experience of my own - being made to leave university because of an overdose I took. The 'dean' I mention is the member of staff at the university who deals with behaviour and welfare problems and he is the one who makes people leave uni if they are not safe enough.
  • I am a classics student. I was inspired by poem 1.3 in the Tristia by the Roman poet Ovid which is about the final night he spends in his home, saying goodbye to his wife, before he is exiled away from Rome by Caesar. The poem and the song seem unmistakably similar to me. Ovid was famously exiled because of a 'song and an error' - he wrote a scandalous sex how-to manual that shocked Caesar, that was the song, but no one really knows what the error was.
I would love to read any other fan poems / prose out there!! Thanks for reading!!


Late Night, Magdalen Street after Morrissey


Michaelmas coming

Push on

So long

Moves on.


The last night on Magdalen Street

Goodbye house

Goodbye stairs.

Dean demanded exile

Beyond Oxford’s furthest shores,

Are the provinces prepared?


Love at first sight

Was our petulant plight,

I can still see that cat

A shape that was golden and crimson

Extending a claw to your open palm.

And I can still see the gladioli

Peeping out of the pocket of your jacket

Where there should have been a cigarette packet.


While I was there,

The classics faculty’s ugliest boy

Became what you see before you:

The empire’s ugliest man.

Those strange pills

Were never meant to hurt you;

The fever and the chills,

They were meant to chill me.

“Many people

May say you are attention seeking

But many people

Can be wrong”.

And so you made it into a song.

I take up the shield too late,

Wounded.


Your song, my error.

Do you remember

When the toaster blew the lights out

So a torch guided us through the park

Trespassing through back gardens

Caught in clotheslines in the dark?

I’m so glad we chose this

Over Wetherspoon's happy hour.

I look at myself in the mirror and gag

But when I am with you in the shower

Oh, it’s not that bad.


Back to the rustic

To late nights on Watling Street.

What of late nights on Magdalen Street?

Three times I fingered the doorway,

(We never fixed that peeling yellow paint)

Three times you called me back

You said that you felt faint

But I thought that was just a little pantomime.

You wanted to come with me,

College gives me my orders

But loyalty sends you to the borders

So you say.


Tristia Tristia

Truly I do love you

Wherever you are

Whoever you are.

Heck of a poem!
Here's a homespun Turkey poem for ya...

Old Bob Joe
Never had a guilty feelin'
Cause he was always fair and square
In all of his dealin'
He said, "It's a right fact,
That I ain't paper rich.
And here's another fact for ya,
I ain't no dirty son bitch."
 
Heck of a poem!
Here's a homespun Turkey poem for ya...

Old Bob Joe
Never had a guilty feelin'
Cause he was always fair and square
In all of his dealin'
He said, "It's a right fact,
That I ain't paper rich.
And here's another fact for ya,
I ain't no dirty son bitch."

Thank you Turkey! Keep the poems coming!
 
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